Can patterns of similarity of difference regarding elite leaders’ views on world politics be established, and can these patterns be explained by individual background factors? This paper addresses this question by employing a two-pronged strategy. First, we conduct an operational code analysis in order to establish the philosophical and instrumental beliefs of a number of US Secretaries of State. Thereafter we analyze whether the political belief system of each secretary of state can be explained by factors such as military and/or diplomatic experience and educational and occupational background. We thereby fill a gap in the literature on political leaders and foreign policy decision-making, by focusing on the operational codes of secretaries of state, a set of actors that has not been systematically analyzed since the seminal works of Holsti (1969), followed by Walker and Falkowski (1984).
